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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/23122855">Sex and Innuendo in Burn Notice</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/merryghoul/pseuds/merryghoul'>merryghoul</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Burn Notice</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>F/M, Gen, Implied Sexual Content, Meta, Nonfiction, Originally Posted on Dreamwidth</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2013-05-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2013-05-12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-20 05:07:31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Not Rated</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,520</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/23122855</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/merryghoul/pseuds/merryghoul</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>How Burn Notice slid sexual content into its dialogue and through its acting.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Fiona Glenanne/Michael Westen</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>March Meta Matters Challenge</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Sex and Innuendo in Burn Notice</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>One picspam in this essay has been replaced by a screenshot from the Tumblr glenannes, a Tumblr project I worked on in 2014; the ones left in the original essay on Dreamwidth were wrong and never corrected.</p><p>Also, I have no clue what LiveJournal post I took that secret from at the end of the essay.  Anyone who knows the link from fandomsecrets at LiveJournal can drop a link in the comments.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>There is a bias on older characters on television, and when they're portrayed, they're not usually portrayed as sexual or very sexual. For example, I think of the original <em>Beverly Hills 90210</em>—you never see characters other than the "teen" characters having sex. (And the "teen" characters on that show were, at most, pushing 30.)</p><p>In contrast, most of the characters on <em>Burn Notice</em> are older than 40, or at least their actors are. But they're shown talking about sex in some way, and often! And more than likely, it's very subversive.</p><p>Before we start, I'll do a quick introduction to the people heavily featured in the picspams below. (For everyone's sake, I did cut down from a very long list of examples for picspams and stuck with four of my favorites.) Michael Westen is the lead protagonist, a burned spy trying to get his job with the CIA back. Fiona Glenanne is his on/off girlfriend and a jack of all trades (former IRA soldier with a dodgy Irish and American accent, gunrunner, bounty hunter, stuntwoman, bomb maker, master of double entendres). Jesse Porter is a guy Michael accidentally burned while trying to get his job back; eventually, since he likes the company of Michael and his team, he decides to stay with them instead of heading back to the CIA.</p><p>I'll start with an overt example. In "Wanted Man," Fiona is supposed to be looking for a mark at a mall, but instead does some window shopping at an outdoor cart.</p><p> </p><p></p><div class="center">
  <p>
    
  </p>
</div><blockquote>
  <p>Picspam captions: A set of nine photos, arranged 3 x 3, set in an outdoor mall somewhere in mainland Miami.Fiona is watching Michael at a kiosk.<span class="Apple-converted-space"> T</span>ext:<br/><br/></p>
</blockquote><blockquote>
  <p>PHOTO 1: FIONA: Are you buying me a birthday card?</p>
  <p>PHOTO 2: MICHAEL: Just window shopping, Fi.You got eyes on Nick?</p>
  <p>PHOTO 3: FIONA: Yes.All the way...</p>
  <p>PHOTO 4: FIONA: from the escalators to that charming little lingerie store.</p>
  <p>PHOTO 5: FIONA: They have a fabulous little teddy in there.Makes a great gift.</p>
  <p>PHOTO 6: MICHAEL: I've never seen you wear anything but men’s shirts to bed.</p>
  <p>PHOTO 7: FIONA: Fair enough.</p>
  <p>PHOTO 8: Michael pictured, FIONA CONT: There [sic] a men’s store on the third floor.Nice selection.</p>
  <p>PHOTO 9: FIONA: The ones with the big buttons are easier to undo.</p>
</blockquote><p><br/>It's pretty obvious what Fiona wants here.</p><p>(Also, sorry for the typo up there, but that actually came from the captions on the DVD.)</p><p>As an added continuity bonus, Fiona's first appearance in the later episode "Unchained" was in...</p><p> </p><p></p><div class="center">
  <p>
    
  </p>
</div><blockquote>
  <p>Photo caption: Michael, on the left, talking to Fiona, wearing a men’s long-sleeved shirt with buttons, on the right. She’s leaning on a rusty stairwell.</p>
</blockquote><p>a men's shirt.</p><p> </p><p>Since Burn Notice isn't a premium cable show, full-on nudity isn't allowed, let alone actual simulated sex. The best way to get past the censors is to use double entendres, be they visual or verbal (or both), whenever possible. The double entendres, in my opinion, are especially for those viewers that are paying attention to the jokes in the episode, but the way they're delivered suggests the characters still do enjoy sex.</p><p>My favorite double entendre is the "Love Boat" gag from "Breach of Faith." During a period where Michael couldn't leave the United States, he sends Fiona and Jesse to the Bahamas to check out a coroner. Fiona has lured the coroner's assistant to a bar to steal his keys. Meanwhile, as a cover, Jesse's doing body shots.<br/><br/></p><p></p><div class="center">
  <p>
    
  </p>
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  <p>Photo caption: Jesse, in the middle, surrounded by two women doing body shots off his body.</p>
</blockquote><p><br/>Whatever works for them, I guess.</p><p>Anyway, the coroner's assistant brings a "Love Boat," a drink served in a pineapple with two straws in the bottom, to Fiona.</p><p>Meanwhile, Michael explains the importance of distracting your marks to pick their pockets. The narration (see the text in italics in the picspam) also serves to distract anyone not paying close attention to the visual gag.</p><p> </p><p></p><div class="center">
  <p>
    
  </p>
</div><blockquote>
  <p>Picspam captions: A set of nine photos, arranged 3 x 3, set in an outdoor bar in “The Bahamas” (n.b.: Burn Notice didn’t shoot outside the Fort Lauderdale-Miami area during its run, so the non-US locations are areas filmed to look as if they were outside the US).Text:<span class="Apple-converted-space"> <br/><br/></span></p>
</blockquote><blockquote>
  <p>Photo 1: CORONER’S ASSISTANT: We call this a "love boat."</p>
  <p>Photo 2: ASSISTANT: You can't leave the island without trying one of these.</p>
  <p>Photo 3: FIONA: No, you can't.</p>
  <p>Photo 4: MICHAEL, narrating as Fiona drinks the "love boat," looking as if she is performing fellatio: Like magicians, pickpockets rely on misdirection.</p>
  <p>PHOTO 5: ASSISTANT: Do you like it?</p>
  <p>PHOTO 6: FIONA: I like it.</p>
  <p>PHOTO 7: MICHAEL, narrating as Fiona drinks the "love boat:" Whether you're pulling keys out of a pocket or a rabbit out of a hat...</p>
  <p>PHOTO 8: MICHAEL, continued: it’s all about big distractions.</p>
  <p>PHOTO 9: FIONA: I can't stop.</p>
  <p>ASSISTANT: Very good.</p>
</blockquote><p><br/>This picspam really doesn't do the scene justice, since there's a lot of hammy acting from Gabrielle Anwar to sell the joke. She moves her fingers up and down the straw as the narration and scene progresses. She's even heard slurping the drink at one point.</p><p>The scene ends with Jesse pretending to be a possessive boyfriend to Fiona so Fiona can grab the coroner assistant's keys, if you're wondering.</p><p> </p><p>A season later, in the episode "Bloodlines," Michael is in "Costa Rica." He has just successfully tripped a mark on a motorbike to make the mark's motorbike crash into foliage.</p><p> </p><p></p><div class="center">
  <p>
    
  </p>
</div><blockquote>
  <p>Photo description: Michael’s mark falling off their bike in foliage.</p>
</blockquote><p><br/>Only the mark he has tripped isn't really a mark, let alone an unfriendly, at all.</p><p> </p><p></p><div class="center">
  <p>
    
  </p>
</div><blockquote>
  <p><br/>Photo description: The mark—Fiona without her helmet.</p>
</blockquote><p>Michael and Fiona have been racing. Because of Michael's tactics, she's also been constantly losing to him. So she figures out a way to finally get on top.</p><p> </p><p></p><div class="center">
  <p>
    
  </p>
</div><blockquote>
  <p>Photo description: Fiona does a leg sweep to knock Michael down.</p>
</blockquote><p><br/>Literally.</p><p> </p><p></p><div class="center">
  <p>
    
  </p>
</div><blockquote>
  <p>Picspam description: Two photos on top of each other, with Fiona on top of Michael.Text:<br/><br/></p>
</blockquote><blockquote>
  <p>Photo 1: MICHAEL: Yeah, these vacations are gonna kill me pretty quickly if you keep riding me like that, Fi.</p>
</blockquote><blockquote>
  <p>Photo 2: FIONA: There are worse ways to go.</p>
</blockquote><p><br/>Not only is Fiona in a suggestive position, there's also a play on <em>le petit mort</em> in the dialogue.</p><p> </p><p>My final example is from "Desperate Measures." Another season later and Michael's team gets stuck in "Panama." They can't directly get on a plane to get back to Miami. (It's a long story.) After several unsuccessful bribery attempts to attempt to get home, Fiona flirts with a pilot (who is later revealed to have ties to the illegal drug trade) so she can help the team hijack his plane so they can get back to Miami. The pilot gets Fiona on the plane.</p><p> </p><p></p><div class="center">
  <p>
    <a href="https://glenannes.tumblr.com/post/78134181025">  </a>
  </p>
</div><blockquote>
  <p>Photo description: A Tumblr photoset of Fiona and the pilot on the plane (<a href="https://glenannes.tumblr.com/post/78134181025">from here</a>). The third photo is a split-screen showing the plane leaving the airport and Fiona in the cockpit. Text:</p>
  <p>Photo 1: FIONA: I have never been in a cockpit before. (Emphasis on cock.)</p>
  <p>Photo 2: Fiona, as played by Gabrielle Anwar, looking into the camera.</p>
  <p>Photo 3: FIONA: You know what all these buttons and switches and knobs are? (Emphasis on knobs.)</p>
  <p>Photo 4: PILOT: I’m a pilot. That’s what we do. Photo 5: Fiona laughing (caption: [ Chuckles ]).</p>
</blockquote><p>(If you're not aware, knob is a slang word for "penis" in the United Kingdom and Ireland. And Fiona's originally from Ireland, so it works out. Also, her actress is originally from England, so it still works out.)</p><p>The suggestive flirting is used as a distraction against the pilot. <a href="https://glenannes.tumblr.com/post/78238098257/oh-good-youre-gonna-really-enjoy-the-rest-of">It's enough for Fiona to pull a gun out of her bag, aim it at the pilot's head, and hijack the plane</a> so the rest of the team can attempt to get on.</p><p>It's very easy to assume that older characters aren't sexual because we're so used to seeing older characters not engage in sexual behaviors on television shows. They're usually on the sidelines, hanging around until the writers are ready to send younger characters to bed. So it's easy for someone to miss the sexual innuendo on shows like <em>Burn Notice.</em></p><p></p><div class="center">
  <p>
    <br/>
    
  </p>
</div><blockquote>
  <p>Photo description: Cropped press still of Michael Westen from an early season of <em>Burn Notice.</em>Text, in black and white font, on photo: "I think [Michael Westen] (character not actor) is asexual.He’s just way more into his work than he is into anything else.Fiona (or <em>any</em> romantic prospect) included."</p>
</blockquote><p><br/>(Secret not mine and is from <span class="ljuser"><a href="http://fandomsecrets.livejournal.com/profile"></a><a href="http://fandomsecrets.livejournal.com/"><b>fandomsecrets</b></a></span>. No, I don't mean the current version running on Dreamwidth.)</p><p>But it's there. Well, at least on<em> Burn Notice.</em></p><p>Whether it's a tactical distraction or the characters are desiring sex in the moment, <em>Burn Notice</em> proves people still have and think about sex after 40, and sex after 40 is no different than sex before you reach your 40s. It'll be a while until more older characters are portrayed as sexual on TV, and especially on broadcast TV, but <em>Burn Notice</em> is helping television break that taboo.</p>
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